Reptile & Amphibian Forums

house? i have to many reptiles for that to happen. what should i do if they do go out?

get a generator if you are that worried. If its summer its no problem till lights go back on but in winter it could be a problem if its out for an extended period of time. I would say if you didnt have so many you could take to a freind or family members house.

If you live where it gets cold in the winter, I suggest buying a gas powered generator for long term power outages (ie more than just a couple hours), and or a UPS (interruptible power supply) for short power outages, as needed.

If the house temperature doesn't drop below 60F, bearded dragons will be fine, as long as they didn't just eat before the power goes out. I don't know what other reptiles you have but they may have different tolerable temperature thresholds.

Another source of heat you can use are the 48 hour heat packs. These are great for snakes as you can bundle them up into a box with the heat packs as though you were going to ship them, and the heat packs should keep them warm. Just make sure they don't get too warm.

I find it best to bring all the animals into one room and heat that room with something, for long term power outages, instead of using individual cages.

To figure out what sort of UPS or generator you need, calculate the wattage and amperage of all your heating/lighting devices, the generator must be able to provide that amount of power. It can also indicate how long stuff will run using a UPS style power source.
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PHLdyPayne

I have the same problem as you. Forget about a battery uninteruptable power supply. They are fine for low wattage use like a computer but will never last for many reptile enclosures.

You can have installed in your house a backup generator system that works on natural gas or propane. This is the easiest and safest method but also the most expensive.

You can buy a gasoline generator like I did. The down side is that you have to run it continually to use the lights and heaters in your enclosures and you will have to buy the appropriate size for your load as mentioned before.

I store 25 gallons of gas during the winter which is a hastle. A large generator will use more than a gallon per hour.

The solution, forget about your reptiles lights and heat in an emergency. If the ambient in your house drops below normal your reptile lights and heaters will not be able to maintain temps. anyway. Have an electrician hook up a cord to your heater that can plug into an electric cord if the power is out. Then you turn off the breaker and run your generator for the heater only until the house is warm. Then shut it off. Wait until it gets too cold and start the generator again and turn on the heat. This will stretch your fuel much farther than running the generator constantly to power lights etc. I figure my fuel will last for a week this way rather than a day.

I'm in a similar situation to yours as I have several herps as well as saltwater reef tanks. I also live up in New Hampshire where the power can go out for days during a bad storm and the temps outside can drop below zero during the dead of winter. So I went out and bought a Generac gas powered portable generator and a 10-line manual transfer switch as well as an outdoor inlet box.

You should have a licensed electrician hook up the transfer switch for you. Here in NH a homeowner is allowed to do their own electrical work and I've worked with a licensed electrician before plus I read a lot of books, so I wired mine up myself (running on 8 years now with no problems). You need to figure out which circuits you want to keep powered up in case of an outage and also balance the wattage between the two sides of the load bar (an electrician will know how to do that for you as long as you tell him which circuits to run).

I ran the circuits for my herp room, reef tanks, well-pump, central heat, fridge, microwave oven, outdoor perimeter lights and the living room (TV, stereo, cable-modem, wireless router). When I lose power I just wheel the generator out of the garage to the back of the house (out of sight from the street) and start it up. I let it warm up for a few minutes and then hook it up to the outdoor inlet box. Then I go inside and flip each line switch on the transfer box, one at a time. This totally isolates the generator from the power lines from the street so none of the line workers gets electrocuted. Once the power comes back on I just reverse the process and put the generator back in the garage.

It's been a real lifesaver for me and my family as well as all the animals and it only cost me around $700 (that was 8 years ago) but it was worth every penny of it.
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1.4.20 Bearded Dragons (Frodo, Red Sonya, Galadriel, Arwen, Lakis & babies)
0.1.0 Peacock Day Gecko
0.1.0 Columbian Red-Tail Boa (Bilbo)
0.1.0 Ball Python (Daisy)
0.1.0 California King Snake (Cali)
1.1.0 Honduran Milk Snakes
1.0.0 Timor Monitor (Timmy)
2.1.0 Red Ear Sliders (Pilot, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum)
0.1.0 PacMan Frog (Jabba The Hutt)
0.0.2 Grey Tree Frogs
0.0.2 Fire Belly Toads
0.2.0 Cats (Mollie & Nermel)
1.0.0 Mini Pinscher x Chihuahua (Pepper)

But how much fuel are you storing?

I usually keep about 7 or 8 gallons between my ATV/snow plow, lawn mower, chain saw and generator needs. The generator holds over 3 gallons which will last about 6 to 8 hours. The power company here has really been on top of things the past couple of years. The longest we've been without power in the past 8 years was a day and a half. Before I got the generator we had lost power for 5 days but that was before I had any herps. The fish tank survived though. The house only got down to 48 degrees amazingly enough.

Hey Steve, how's your baby dragon doing? This is Dave from NH!
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1.4.20 Bearded Dragons (Frodo, Red Sonya, Galadriel, Arwen, Lakis & babies)
0.1.0 Peacock Day Gecko
0.1.0 Columbian Red-Tail Boa (Bilbo)
0.1.0 Ball Python (Daisy)
0.1.0 California King Snake (Cali)
1.1.0 Honduran Milk Snakes
1.0.0 Timor Monitor (Timmy)
2.1.0 Red Ear Sliders (Pilot, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum)
0.1.0 PacMan Frog (Jabba The Hutt)
0.0.2 Grey Tree Frogs
0.0.2 Fire Belly Toads
0.2.0 Cats (Mollie & Nermel)
1.0.0 Mini Pinscher x Chihuahua (Pepper)

Wow, I'm surprised. Mine must be a lot larger than yours. Mine goes through about a gallon per hour with a load.